Track what hurts to measure, not what looks good in a pitch
Here's the thesis of the week: if your KPI is tweetable, it probably isn't your KPI.
This week I went through the VIVIO dashboard and realised I had spent weeks looking at the wrong metrics. New signups, web traffic, followers. Numbers that go up and give you dopamine, but that don't pay salaries.
I ran the first principles exercise: what does this business need in order to exist 12 months from now? Answer: customers who renew and who bring in more customers. That's it.
So I threw out half the dashboard. Now I look at 4 things only: net MRR (new minus churned), 90-day NRR, time from signup to first activated campaign, and brand NPS after their first campaign.
The rest is entomology. Counting bugs. It looks lovely in a deck, but it doesn't move the needle.
An exercise for you this week: take your current metrics and ask which ones you would keep looking at if nobody was ever going to see them. Those are the good ones. The rest is theatre.
What I learned
I had an uncomfortable conversation with an investor this week. He asked me about a specific metric and I couldn't answer precisely. I knew it roughly, but not to the decimal.
And that's when I realised something I had been avoiding for a while: when you don't know your own numbers cold, it's because deep down you don't like them.
I had spent months speaking very well about VIVIO in public while avoiding looking certain numbers in the face in private. Not because they're bad, but because they're not where I want them to be.
The lesson: the numbers you avoid looking at are exactly the ones you have to look at first thing every Monday. With coffee and without excuses.
This week I brought back my Monday 8am ritual. Just me, the dashboard and the truth. It hurts, but it works.
On the radar
- Canva launches an AI and training programme for Spanish SMEs, with mentoring. They're building the ecosystem in which they are the operating system. A masterstroke, not a marketing campaign.
- Waahi promises bulk management of Google Business Profile for local businesses. Local SEO is still the gold mine almost nobody works properly. Tools like this are going to explode in 2026.
- Cloud telephony positions itself as a strategic piece of digital transformation. Translation: there are still billion-euro businesses in verticals that look boring. The sexy founders miss this.
- A new guide on TikTok content strategy focused on SEO and formats. TikTok is no longer entertainment, it's a search engine. Anyone not treating it as SEO in 2026 is out.
The actionable advice
Today, before you close the laptop, take your product or service and ask: what is the exact moment when a new customer either gets hooked or leaves for good? Put a number on it (days, actions, usage). Then design your ENTIRE onboarding so that moment happens as early as possible. Don't add features, remove friction up to that point. That alone can double your retention.
Behind VIVIO
A hard number from VIVIO this week: 62% of the brands that activate their first campaign within 7 days of signup go on to renew. Those that take more than 14 days renew only 18% of the time.
Operational translation: our job isn't to sell them the platform, it's to get them into their first campaign fast. Every day that passes without activation is churn probability going up.
We've pointed the whole onboarding at a single goal: first campaign activated before day 5. Nothing else. They learn the rest by using it.
This is a version of what I send every week, unfiltered, in my newsletter "Eso no fue suerte". If you want the rest, subscribe for free.